Sweeney Todd the opera?

What is

The plot and dialogue of this 1979 musical thriller is filled with blood-red humour. Whichever way you slice it, Sweeney Todd is nothing less than a juicy, almost all-singing case of Murder, He Wrote, with an operatic emotional and musical range. But Sondheim's masterpiece was a Broadway triumph, nabbing eight Tony awards including Best Musical. So what on earth is it doing at the Royal Opera House?

And he should know. In 1984 he was an assistant conductor on the New York City Opera production. In other words, this is far from a first. It has been staged everywhere from the National Theatre to London's tiny Half Moon theatre, but Sweeney Todd has also been produced by opera companies in Houston, Holland Park, Sydney and Chicago.

Antonio Pappano, Covent Garden's music director, is clear about it. 'I'm not a man on a misson. Our repertoire is wide: we perform Baroque, Romantic, modern works. This piece has always intrigued me. Sweeney Todd is a colour we haven't had here.'

Last year, Londoners swift enough to bag tickets caught an exciting Opera North production at Sadler's Wells. It was directed by David McVicar. He dislikes the idea of classifying the piece but finally argues that it's a musical. 'In opera, I always feel that the musical action dictates to the stage. In Sweeney the stage action dictates what the players in the pit must do.'

Jeremy Sams isn't so sure. A director and composer, Sams is a Sondheim specialist with the British premiere of his musical Passion to his credit. He too frowns at the desire to categorise Sweeney Todd. 'It is what it is,' he says, sternly. But, pushed into a corner, he places it in the operatic tradition as the equal of the 20th century's masterpieces Wozzeck, Peter Grimes and Porgy And Bess.

All four are about charismatic outcasts who won't listen to those around them and who wind up committing murder. And if you think that's impossibly esoteric, remember that Porgy And Bess was penned by George Gershwin, the Broadway composer of 'I Got Rhythm', 'The Lady Is A Tramp' and 'They Can't Take That Away From Me'. But then, as Sams says, 'If you think that opera is highbrow and musicals are lowbrow it shows you know little or nothing about either.'

Sondheim, a classically trained composer who has always worked in musical theatre or film, does draw a distinction. 'I've always defined opera as anything done in an opera house in front of an opera audience. It's the audience's expectations that define the performance. Opera audiences generally come to hear singers, not to see plots. People who go to musical theatre go to hear songs - or sometimes to see the stars - and are interested in the story. Opera audiences generally are not.'

Musical (or operatic) beauty is, therefore, in the ear of the beholder. Pappano promises that the music gains from the 'strong, visceral charge of powerful operatic voices'. Loving the story as he does, he has cast Thomas Allen and Felicity Palmer, opera singers famous for their acting skills. Pappano even dares mention the possibility of 'achieving genuine crossover'. But if that conjurs up the safe, dumbed-down pandering of classical music record companies, think again. This is risky.

They need to hit 85 per cent capacity but with tickets ranging from £4 to £75 they are already well on target. Elaine Padmore, the house's director of opera, is relieved. 'We definitely didn't expect it to be an easy sell. We're stretching the repertoire and the audience.'

Sentiments like that will inflame purists already having conniptions at the prospect of, say, Kiri Te Kanawa turning up there in Hello, Dolly! They needn't fear. 'Our repertoire is booked four or five years ahead,' says Padmore, 'and there are no other titles of this type in the plans.'

In fact, almost no other musical would possibly benefit from operatic resources. And Pappano knows it. 'We are an opera house, therefore we cast operatic singers. Sweeney Todd can take that. I have such a wonderful chorus who are ready to get into the action and really go for it. There's a lot of cliched "stand and sing" in opera and this is a wonderful opportunity for my orchestra and chorus to inhabit a different world. Whether it's "better" as an opera or a musical isn't interesting to me.'